The ripple effect
Why are more SPADs leading to runs-through and derailments? And in the case of the Stafford Trent Valley incident, the SPAD led to trespass too.
Most SPADs are low-level incidents, often involving little more than the buffer stops passing the signal. Just lately, though, the control logs have started to suggest a rise in SPADs, which in turn has seen a rise in post-SPAD incidents.
The last fatal post-SPAD incident on GB rail was the collision at Ladbroke Grove in 1999. That’s a long time ago – but not long enough for anyone to be getting complacent about SPADs. This is why the cross-industry SPAD Risk Subgroup does so much work to help us get to the bottom of the issues that cause them.
The accident at Loversall Carr Junction proves that we’re right to keep vigilant. Last July, a freight passed D197 signal at danger and struck the rear of another. The driver thankfully suffered only minor injuries and was discharged from hospital the same day. RAIB found fatigue to be in the causal chain, something that the operator will be considering more closely.
Most of the post-SPAD derailments we’re seeing, though, are low-risk and often occur on trap points, when they're protecting the running lines from errant trains. We thought the post-SPAD runs-through we were seeing were low-risk too. Most of them were; most of them led to damage, delay but little else.
Then came an incident at Stafford Trent Valley on 22 August 2023. At about 16:42 that afternoon, 90006, which was making a test run between Nuneaton and Crewe, passed a signal at danger on the approach to Stafford Trent Valley No.1 Junction. The locomotive ran through the points as it came to a stand, putting it into conflict with a route that had been set for another train. Neither that train nor any other trains were in the immediate vicinity at the time. No one was injured and the locomotive did not derail, although the points were knocked about a bit.
The driver said they had become distracted due to a loss of line light on the locomotive. They were judged unfit to continue and were relieved on site. But there was something else about this incident. It led, as so many of them do, to a passenger train being stranded. By 18:30, it had been decided to set it back to Wolverhampton. Before it moved, however, a passenger self-evacuated. The MOM and BTP officers on site apprehended them and escorted them to safety.
There are questions being asked in the industry about how much more inclined stranded passengers have become to get out of the train and walk. Stafford shows an overlap – in this one incident, the freight world, the passenger world and the trespass world became one.
RAIB is now investigating, and we await the results with interest. We’ll report back on the findings once they are known.